Dental students drop in on local children
Dental hygiene students from Idaho State University visited children from Lincoln Early Childhood Center last week to give them fluoride treatments.
The dental hygiene students visit the children three times a year and offer their services free of charge. The children receive fluoride treatments, which strengthen their teeth and help to prevent cavities and decay. Preventable oral health problems, including tooth decay, are currently on the rise across America and fluoride treatments could help to put a stop to this.
Idaho State University students offer their time and services as part of a community outreach programme, which involves several different projects. This programme enables students to mix with children and educate them about oral hygiene, as well as benefitting the children involved in the fluoride programme. The students also offer treatments to children from others schools, as well as adults and treat around 2,000 people per year; funding for the fluoride programme comes from the dental hygiene budget and the programme is also supported by the Southeastern District Health Department.
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The National Academy of Sciences did a thorough review on fluoride in 2006. They documented numerous deleterious effects of fluoride on many organ systems including increased potential risk for bone fractures (the well characterized disease of skeletal fluorosis) possibly increased risk of osteosarcoma, reduced IQ, thyroid dysfunction, endocrine dysfunction and others all 300 pages is online if anyone cares to confirm it. Of course don’t forget fluoride induced dental fluorsosis (i.e. teeth mottling and a sign of toxic exposure to fluoride – the rate has increased dramatically subsequent to widespread water fluoridation with the CDC and others putting the prevalence somewhere around 30%) The NAS study ended with recommending that the EPA should more strictly regulate fluoride. Their findings mirror those in the peer-reviewed medical literature, while Harvard trained toxicologist Phyllis Mullenix also extensively documented behavioral changes in mice upon exposure to blood levels of fluoride not far greater than those experienced through water fluoridation and other sources of exposure. Former, well credentialed EPA scientists have been fired for bucking the political line on this issue. Meanwhile 90% of the fluoride placed into our water supply is not industrial grade sodium fluoride, it is silicofluorides, quite simply, scraped from the sides of Florida phosphate plant smokestacks. If it weren’t thrown into the water supply it would have to be disposed of as hazardous waste. You can read more on this starting here.